Scientific profile

Tilburg University specializes in the social sciences and the humanities, as evident in the names of faculties, now called schools: Economics and Management, Law, Humanities, Social and Behavioral Studies and Catholic Theology. The Roman Catholic Business School, founded in 1927, focused on Commercial Sciences and Economics, but its curriculum paid explicit attention to Behavioral Economics, Ethics and Society. As of 1946, moreover, the then College also gained a Department of Social Sciences in addition to Economic Sciences. From the late fifties onwards, the College aimed to expand its profile and acquire university status. The College sought expansion into domains relating to people, society and culture, thus keeping its profile specialist and distinctive while widening its scope. In 1963, the College acquired two new faculties: the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Law. Further expansion of its scientific profile arrived with the establishment of the Theological Faculty (1967), a sub-Faculty of Psychology (1971), a Faculty of Philosophy (1979) and a Faculty of Arts (1981).

Research institutes

Since the eighties, research institutes have played an increasingly important role in the University’s profiling efforts. A good example here is CentER, performing advanced and internationally renowned research in Economics. The five current Centers of Excellence are multidisciplinary research centers examining the key social issues of the contemporary world, such as health, ageing, sustainability, digitization and communication. Most of these are themes that are also central to European funding programs such as Horizon2020 and the Dutch National Research Agenda.

Impact programs

Its focus on people, society and culture is a constant in the University’s history and resurfaces in the three themes of its impact program: Health & Well-Being, A More Resilient Society and Data Science. The impact of Tilburg-based research is demonstrated by the fact that the United Nations World Food Program could be made more efficient with data analytics. Another example is the REMIND app, a brain-training program that serves to strengthen the brain after a brain tumor operation. Technology is playing an expanding role in research, as shown by the advent of the Jheronimus Academy of Data Science in ‘s Hertogenbosch in 2016, partnering up with the Eindhoven University of Technology.